O is for One of a Kind
by lilac-kat
Summary: WRITTEN FOR SA CONTEST WINNER #2: Who is Agent Ori? What made him run off all the time in "Hold the Door"? Why have we never seen him with a partner? And most importantly, what is his purpose in Odd Squad? This story will tell you the answers to these questions, and so much more... (Edit: MOST DEFINITELY CONTAINS *SLIGHT* SHIPPING. Like what they began in "Ships Ahoy" ;)
1. Prologue: 'I just have a knack'

**A/N Alright guys, I'm back! :) This is gonna be a brief A/N because I don't have much to say, just that this'll be my last post for awhile since I officially start this college semester TOMORROW. (Ugggghhhh!) But yeah, hope you like this story, and please favorite/follow and leave a review!**

 **DISCLAIMER: I don't own, neither am I affiliated with, _Odd Squad_.**

 **SECOND DISCLAIMER: The story may be conceived and written by me, but Basil Grey has the final say in what is published.**

Prologue: "I just kinda have this knack for knowing stuff."

It was a quiet summer afternoon in the town park. A few cute toddlers carefreely played on the playground, their parents hovering close by. Two older girls tossed a red Frisbee back and forth (or at least attempted to) in the grassy open area. Joggers wearing earbuds ran around the perimeter, getting their exercise and music-listening in for the day. And cutting through the center of it all was an old lady with a floppy hat and sunglasses, out for a stroll with her cat on a leash, but nobody paid her much mind.

At least, not until an Odd Squad agent darted out from behind a tree and fired a gadget at her.

Instantly the old lady was transformed. The floppy hat and sunglasses disappeared, and a shock of bright blue hair popped up in their place. The figure grew tall, slender, and morphed into a glowing mass of pictures and blue light. A narrow, angular face with a pointed nose appeared last, wearing a withering scowl.

The Shapeshifter growled. _Darn, foiled again! And I thought my disguise was foolproof this time…_

"Y'know, it's kinda obvious you've got something to hide when you're wearing a floppy hat _and_ sunglasses," the agent, a dark-haired boy of about eight, quipped, as if in answer to her thoughts. "Most people choose one or the other for protection from the sun, but not both."

"Alright, alright, you found me," Shapeshifter snapped. "I suppose you want your precious Ambassador back?"

Holding up the cat's leash, she waved it tauntingly in front of the agent, who didn't bat an eye. _Come to think of it, I probably should've changed its shape, too,_ she thought. _Or at least taken off its little professional suit before kidnapping him._

The agent muttered something sounding like "That probably would've been a good idea."

Startled, Shapeshifter narrowed her eyes. "What did you just say?"

"I said, that would probably be a good idea, if you handed the Ambassador over now," he said nonchalantly. "Would save you a whole lot of trouble here in the next few minutes."

Shapeshifter burst out laughing. _Does this upstart even know who I am?_ "You have _got_ to be joking. I am the Shapeshifter!" she announced, putting her hands on her hips with no small amount of sass. "I can shapeshift into anything I want to escape you, Odd Squad!"

The boy raised an eyebrow. "Anything, huh? How about—"

 _Oh no you don't. Joke's on you, I know where this is going._ "I'm going to stop you right there," she cut him off, blatantly simpering. "You're not going to fool me with _this_ trick again."

But instead of the fear and uncertainty Shapeshifter was expecting to find in response, all she got was a chuckle and a shrug. "Worth a shot. Agent Todd, wasn't it?"

She cocked her head. This was new. Odd Squad agents rarely got sidetracked enough to carry on a casual conversation with the villain they were pursuing, at least in her experience. _But this one looks newer and more inexperienced than the rest_ , she decided. _Maybe he's just too naive to know how to confront an odd villain like myself._ For the time being, Shapeshifter decided to play along. "Yes, _before_ he did the right thing by coming to our side. But how did you know about that? You don't look like you've been on the squad long enough for that."

He shrugged again. "I dunno. I just kinda have this knack for knowing stuff. Like, didn't you also defeat one of our best agents by turning into her greatest fear and scaring her?"

 _Ah yes. That Agent Olive. Another reason to have Odd Todd on our side._ She smiled smugly at the fond memory. "Yes, yes I did. I too have a knack for knowing certain, useful things."

"You make a good point," he agreed. "Not many people are that afraid of pie. It seems kinda ridiculous to me. Like it shouldn't even be a real fear."

 _Of course it shouldn't. Odd Squad's so-called "best" agent has always been a weak one, deep down. Nobody in their right mind would let themselves be afraid of_ _pie_ _. Now, ants on a log..._ _that's_ _something worth being afraid of. An abhorrent mutated hybrid of three types of foods that should_ _never_ _go together: the sickening wet crunch of the celery clashing with the heavy sweet stickiness of peanut butter, and those raisin ants that gaze at you tauntingly like eyes boring into the very depths of your soul…._ Shapeshifter held back a shudder. The boy was right. Pie was nothing compared to _that_ horror.

Speaking of the boy, he seemed to have forgotten his chatty spell, and had a bright and eager grin on his face. "But never mind about that. I still have to catch you and escort the Ambassador safely to his home."

Shapeshifter stood straighter and tossed her head. _Here we go,_ _now_ _we're talking business._ "Tsk tsk tsk, what have I told you? It's way too easy for me to escape. In fact," she sniffed, "I'm going to escape with your precious Ambassador. Right. _Now_. By transforming into—"

" _ANTS ON A LOG!_ "

Quicker than (Mr.) lightning, the boy whipped up the gadget he'd used earlier and fired. The familiar teal circular beam shot out and enveloped her completely, but instead of bringing her back into true form…

...it did the opposite.

To her utter shock, Shapeshifter began changing her form, for the first time in her life, against her own will. She felt her body grow longer, thicker, rounder, and— _stringier._ Compressed water in a crunchy, stringy green flesh. Her core was an open crevice, rapidly filling with something heavy, sticky...and smelling heavily of peanuts. Suddenly it dawned on Shapeshifter, as four huge wrinkled fruity _somethings_ were shoved into her heavy sticky core—

Somehow, someway, she was becoming her own worst nightmare.

That's when the panic consumed her. Shapeshifter screamed, and screamed, and screamed, the screams muffled by peanut butter, her celery mind unable to focus on anything else.

ANTS ON A LOG ANTS ON A LOG ANTS ON A LOG ANTS ON A LOG

Caught in the surprise, she was stuck, stuck, stuck in this horrific shape, she couldn't get out of it, there was nowhere to go—

" _Caught you!_ "

Those two words, spoken by two girls and a boy she hadn't heard yet today, punctured through her fear and, too late, cleared her mind. Immediately she came to her senses and snapped back into her own familiar form—only to find herself totally ensnared in a tightly-woven net. It didn't take long for the reality to sink in: no matter what shape her weight would allow her to take on, there would be no way out.

 _What happened?_ she wondered in disbelief. _I was...forced into...but I've never told anyone...how is that even possible?_

"I'll tell you how it's possible."

Shapeshifter whipped her head in the direction of the voice. Looming over her was that boy agent she had so gravely underestimated. Standing on either side of them were two other agents she recognized, Octavia and Orchid, the latter of whom was holding that red Frisbee. She was just in time to watch as they each pressed the top button on their jackets, transforming their casual clothes disguise back into agent suits. And next to Octavia seemed to float the Ambassador himself in midair, presumably held by Octavia's invisible partner.

Shapeshifter squinted at the boy. "Who are you?"

The boy gave her a gap-toothed grin. "I'm Agent Ori," he declared. "And I can hear everything."


	2. Chapter 1: 'Hi, I'm Ori'

**A/N Sorry this is so incredibly late, guys! As expected, college got majorly in the way, and Basil Grey had lots of internet problems, so there was a lot of setback. But I promise I'm working on the next chapter as we speak, in addition to the next chapter of "Serv'd Up", so lots of good stuff coming your way!**

 ** _FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT_ : I have finished going back through "Ships Ahoy!" and edited/updated each chapter, from grammar mistakes to continuity errors to just plain changing small details because I didn't like them. So be sure to check it out!**

 ** _SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT_ : A good friend of mine, Fictious33, is holding his own Odd Squad Oneshot Contest, located at the mini-URL below (plus spaces bc this site is evil). In this contest, you submit a oneshot idea, and I believe he'll write the winner as a story. Please go check it out, there's no reason any Odd Squad fan shouldn't! :)**

goo . gl / JZu9US

Chapter 1: "Hi, I'm Ori!"

Hi, I'm Ori! You probably know who I am already, I'm an agent at Odd Squad. What you just saw was a case I solved once, pretty recently actually! You see, after rescuing him on that top-secret mission last year, Odd Squad was supposed to escort the Ambassador back to his home country, but the two agents escorting him got surprised by the Shapeshifter, who kidnapped the Ambassador and escaped. Security traced her to the town park, so Orchid and Octavia and Oz went in disguise as backup, while Ms. O sent _me_ to trap Shapeshifter! It's pretty cool because Oscar had just invented a gadget that looked like the Revealinator, but it could turn Shapeshifter _into_ something else instead of the other way around. So I decided to turn her into her worst fear, so she would be distracted enough to catch!

But how did I know that her worst fear was ants on a log?

…Okay, if I'm being real for a second, I don't know how. I just know that, for as long as I can remember, I can... _hear_ things. Like, people might tell me things with their mouths, but then they _tell_ (but not really "tell") me other things, too, and I _hear_ (but not really "hear") it and so I do my best to listen to that.

It wasn't even until the end of my time at the Academy that I slowly began to realize everybody else couldn't do it, too.

Back in those days, it was harder for me to hear-but-not-hear those _other_ things that people would say-but-not-say, because I would only hear parts of it, and it was only if I was next to them. Like one time, I was turning in some late homework to one of my Academy teachers before class, and I heard him tell-but-not-tell me that he hoped there'd be enough egg salad chowder left in the cafeteria—at least I think that's what he said, because it came out like this: " _I...there's...e...ad cho...eria."_ Back then I couldn't always decide if I had trouble hearing-but-not-hearing what everyone else was saying-but-not-saying to me, or if everyone else had trouble telling-but-not-telling me things. But no one ever got mad at me if I didn't answer them, so I hoped that meant it was nothing to worry about.

All that started to change when I graduated the Academy and got assigned to Precinct 13579.

My trainer in the Training Room, Obfusco, was okay. With his mouth he would say really confusing things, but at the same time he would say-but-not-say what he really meant. And for some reason, I could hear-but-not-hear and understand him more clearly than I had with anyone else before. So he might say with his mouth, "Like a spring lamb doing yoga in the Mariana Trench, you have exited the crucible unscathed!" but he would also say-but-not-say, " _You passed...nal test...top score!"_ which I took as, " _You passed your final test with a top score!"_ (Which was pretty awesome, by the way.) I couldn't be sure if I was getting better at hearing-but-not-hearing, or if Obfusco was just easier to hear-but-not-hear for some reason, but either way it was really cool.

Not so cool, though, was my tour around headquarters.

* * *

Okay, now first things first. Before I tell you about what happened that day, I want to make one thing _very clear:_ I did my best to follow everyone's instructions. I really did.

I guess my final week of training with Obfusco messed with my head a bit too much. Not because of him saying confusing stuff or anything, but more since I got in the habit of _only_ listening to what he said-but-didn't-say. So when I got sent up to Ms. O's office for my tour, I think I accidentally decided that all Odd Squad agents did their most important talking by talking-but-not-talking.

Here's what happened:

First, Ms. O introduced me to the two agents that would be giving me my tour, Olive and Otto. I couldn't believe I was finally seeing _two real agents_ up close. No, literally, I didn't believe it at first. See, one of my friends at the Academy—O'Puck—he told me once that every Odd Squad office claims to have thousands of agents, but really only has about thirty-one, and the rest are just holograms. So even though I was quick to exclaim, "Whoa! Two _real_ Odd Squad agents!" I was also quick to get suspicious and ask Ms. O, "Unless...are they holograms?"

The tall one, Otto, said-but-didn't-say something too fast for me to catch. "Can a hologram do this?" he asked, putting a hand on my shoulder.

No, I agreed, I guess a hologram can't touch my—

Turns out that wasn't what he had in mind. Instead, he surprised and delighted me with his best boxer impression. "HAI!" he shrieked, punching and head-butting the air. "HAI! HAI! HAI—"

" _...partner...showoff,"_ the girl, Olive, said-but-didn't-say in annoyance behind me, and I turned around just in time for her to cut him off with "We're not holograms!"

After that Ms. O started giving Olive and Otto their instructions, something about dangerous places, but since she didn't say-but-not-say anything with that, I wasn't really paying attention. I started wondering if anything else in the office was actually a hologram, so I was busy memorizing what the office looked like now, in case any holograms shifted later into something else.

I don't remember much of what happened next, though. I might've said something about the time I made shoes out of bananas because I thought it was really impressive, although I don't think Olive liked that very much. I do remember we went down to the big center room in HQ (I think it's called the bullpen?) and Olive started giving some boring speech about how awesome Odd Squad is. Yeah, yeah, I heard all of this already from all the teachers at the Academy. So when I heard her say-but-not-say something about " _First...to...lab...p—sh..."_ I was glad to have something to do. This must be what she _really_ wants me to do, I thought, running over. Oh hey look, there's a button! Maybe that's what she wants me to do, push the button in the lab! So I pushed it, but then it made a weird noise and green lightning things started shooting out of it. "What does this thing do?" I wondered, getting a little nervous.

"HEY!" I heard Olive shout, and next thing I knew she'd expertly shut it off and dragged me away from there. "Don't touch that!" she scolded, pointing her finger at me.

Well, that was a little confusing. I'm glad she fixed it and all, but why would she tell-but-not-tell me to push the button and then tell me _not_ to? Do all Odd Squad agents just say stuff that's the opposite of what they say-but-not-say, like is that a thing?

As Olive started her boring speech over again, my thinking was interrupted by something else being said-but-not-said, this time by Otto. I didn't catch everything, but I thought I heard "gadgets" and "look" and "puh...ket," maybe? Oh, I bet he's saying _pocket_ but in a funny way! And to look for a gadget, maybe? Quickly I ran over to Otto and pulled the first thing I could find out of his pocket, and sure enough it was a gadget! "Cool gadget," I said, admiring it.

Otto looked down at me in surprise. "Where'd you get that?"

Whaddya mean, where did I get this? "Your pocket?" I reminded him. Maybe it would work better if I could say-but-not-say "your pocket" instead, but I hadn't figured out how to do that yet.

Olive clearly didn't get it, because all she did was say, "Hey, this is not a toy," (yeah, I got that, thanks) and take the gadget from me, without even explaining what it could do.

The next thing I remember is Olive saying the first stop was the lab, but then Otto started arguing with her that we should go to the donut room first. I sighed. This was getting dull. Olive and Otto weren't even paying attention to me by this point. Didn't I have a tour that I needed to get started?

Listen for what they're saying-but-not-saying. Right. Maybe that'll help.

Otto wasn't saying-but-not-saying anything different from his argument that we should go to the Donut Room, but Olive said-but-didn't-say something interesting: " _Al—s stupid...just...go to the Volcano Room."_

Okay, so the Volcano Room. That was a start. I wasn't sure why Olive would want me to go there, but maybe she believed it was best to expose me to some of the more dangerous places in headquarters. (O'Puck had told me stories about some of these rooms whenever we'd have sleepovers at the Academy. I'm not gonna lie, they scared me a little, and there was one night I couldn't sleep after hearing about the horrors of the Tentacle Room. I really hoped I'd never be asked to go in _there_.) I was still nervous about what had just happened when I pushed that button in the lab, but I figured that Olive, apparently a veteran agent, knew what she was doing by telling-but-not-telling me where to go.

So with that in mind, I decided to get this tour started on my own, and left behind the two arguing agents to find the Volcano Room on my own. Wait'll Ms. O finds out I found my way around headquarters all by myself, I thought giddily. She'll be so proud of me.

It was only later I figured out what Olive had _really_ said-but-hadn't-said:

" _Going to the Donut Room, ha! Almost as stupid as taking a recruit to the dangerous rooms in HQ, it's just pointless. It'd be like if you asked him to—oh, I dunno, go to the Volcano Room."_

* * *

Whew, it was hot in here. But the heat was worth it to see that awesome explosion. This _had_ to be why Olive really wanted me to come here, I mean how often do you get to see a volcano explode like that? Good thing that really nice security guard told me how to figure out the code to get in the door, otherwise I might've missed it. (Although it was kind of weird how he also said-but-didn't-say " _Nine pl...wo_ " instead of letting me figure it out, but hey, I'm not complaining.)

"Ori!"

The door opened behind me, and in ran Olive and Otto. Oh good, you're just in time! "Look guys, fire!" I pointed out to them proudly.

For some reason they didn't pay attention to it at all, instead just dragging me off the viewing plank and back into the hallway. Of course, I told myself. They've probably seen stuff like this loads of times before, and it'll probably get too hot and dangerous soon.

"Ori, you _really_ have to stick with us," Otto panted once the door was shut.

Oh, right, he didn't know what Olive had told-but-hadn't-told me earlier. "But she said to go into the Volcano Room," I explained to him, pointing to Olive.

To my surprise, Olive looked confused. "What? No, I did _not_ say that!" And then she made a strange face and said, "Ori, you are...one of a kind."

One of a kind?

What did she mean by that?

I mean, of course she hadn't _told me_ to go to the Volcano Room, she _told-but-didn't-tell_ me to go. The two things are completely different, of course.

Before I could think about it much more, though, another Odd Squad agent showed up and started talking to Olive and Otto, except this guy looked like another guy I'd seen at the Academy once who called himself a scientist. But the way they were talking was the exact opposite to what I'd been hearing-but-not-hearing, so I wasn't sure if it was the right thing to be listening to. So when I heard Otto say-but-not-say " _At le...ould—go—into the Dinosaur Room downstairs,"_ I decided that sounded like a much better idea, and I quickly ran to find a staircase or elevator or something. Plus I can hear-but-not-hear more words now, I realized happily. I must be getting better at this!

Eventually I got to this huge dark room with a ton of boxes, and there was this door at the back marked with dinosaur stickers, so I did some math, punched in the code again, and went inside. I got to meet some cool-looking gigantic dinosaurs (which was pretty sick!) and they were super nice, until that one scientist guy who called himself Oscar showed up. I didn't think they liked him a whole lot, because after that they started attacking him, and so I tried to tell them to stop, but Oscar managed to get away and shove me out the door instead. Then things got even more confusing, because Olive took me by the shoulders and said that going into the Dinosaur Room was very dangerous. But I already knew that, didn't I? Wasn't this the point they were trying to get me to do or something?

After that I remember things getting confusing. A girl they called Dr. O came over then and started asking them stuff, and somewhere in there I heard-but-didn't-hear someone (not sure who) say-but-not-say something like, " _Ori...run all over the place,_ " and when I realized that would be a faster way to see all of headquarters, that's exactly what I did. But as I ran around I kept hearing-but-not-hearing soooooo many different places to go to, and it was so confusing because I couldn't tell what all the places were because everyone was talking-but-not-talking all at the same time. Eventually I heard-but-didn't-hear " _Princess Room,_ " and glad I finally had a clear name, I ran looking for it. The combination was a little harder to figure out this time, what with the three numbers instead of two, but it was worth it. It was a very pretty room, I discovered, and I _really_ really loved the fountain in there, although the Robot Princesses were a little creepy when they showed up. Luckily Otto and Oscar found me and pulled me out while Olive and Dr. O covered us with these really cool-looking metal shields. And then I guess the tour was done because after that they all said "We did it!" and then Ms. O showed up and said I'd had a really good tour and I was ready to become an agent!

Whoa, I can't believe it! I thought. It's actually happening! I was so excited I started dancing and grinning like an idiot, but right before she could give me my badge, I heard someone say-but-not-say, " _Ori...need...run off again!_ "

…Are you serious?

" _N...ow!_ "

I couldn't believe it. I went through that long crazy and sometimes scary tour and now I can't even get my badge? As fun as it was, I was a little fed up. One of these days I have to learn how to say-but-not-say things back to people, I decided, so that they don't get mad at me for it. Hopefully someone'll show me how.

But now wasn't the right time, it seemed. So once again, a little reluctantly but obediently, I took off running to odd-knows-where.


	3. Chapter 2: 'Speech-but-not-speech'

**A/N So as you might've noticed, I've officially changed the plot summary to read that there is indeed some shipping between Ori and Orchid, hinted at near the end of this chapter. Hope you guys enjoy that!**

 **In other news, there's a new Odd Squad roleplaying forum out on this site called "Welcome to Odd Squad", which can be found by going up to the top-left of your screen on the main Odd Squad stories page and clicking on the link that says "Forums". So far it's been pretty successful with over 650 posts, so I highly recommend you go check it out!**

Chapter 2: "Speech-but-not-speech"

So that's how my first day as a recruit went! Obviously, I now know what was going on that day, and so does everyone else, but back then everyone thought I was crazy and I thought everyone was crazy, so things were really just this huge mess. And nope, I'm not going to tell you what it actually was. Well, not yet, anyhow. Although there's a good chance you've figured it out by now...

Anyways, after running all over headquarters a _second_ time, I stumbled into this super-forgotten-about backroom with dust and things growing everywhere. One of the growing things was this humongous grapevine, and there was something...well, _odd_ about it. I felt like I should do something, for some reason, so I kinda stood there and, since I couldn't think of anything else to do, started awkwardly waving and said, "Hi, I'm Ori!"

And wonder of wonders, the grapevine could talk! Well actually, it talked-but-didn't-talk, which was even more wonderful. But the most wonderful of all? _I could understand it completely!_

Yeah, I know! I must be getting better at this! I thought happily. If only I could talk-but-not-talk back to it, but that didn't seem to matter. It told me, " _Hello, Ori. I have been waiting for you to come to me._ "

And of course I was confused, so I asked out loud, "H-how do you know who I am? I just joined the squad."

" _Do not concern yourself with that right now. All you need to know is that you can understand me when I speak like this, and soon you will be able to understand others in the same way as you can with me._ "

I didn't really understand that part, so I went along with it. "Okay. Do you have a name? What do you do all alone down here?" I asked, sitting on the floor by the part of it that grew in the ground.

" _Grapevine will do just fine, thank you._ " I think it might've been smiling, if it had a face. " _And I wouldn't say I'm alone. The agents don't remember me, but I grow all throughout headquarters, and I see and hear everything that happens in this building._ "

My eyes widened like tomatoes. "Everything?"

" _Everything. If I ever tell you something and an agent asks how you know it, just tell them you heard it through the grapevine._ "

I giggled. "Wow! That's super cool!"

" _It is. And I can tell you more about that later, if you want. But for now, we must move on to your training._ "

Training? What sort of training? I wondered.

" _It has to do with how you hear me speak to you. It is a skill you must perfect, and learn how to do yourself if you will ever be able to use it to your advantage._ "

I gasped. It heard-but-didn't-hear me? "But I didn't say-but-not-say anything! I don't know how to do that yet!"

The grapevine made a planty-ish sound that I decided was chuckling. " _Oh, but you do. You just don't recognize it in yourself yet. But that is why we must train you. The more you become accustomed to holding conversations like this, the better you will be able to take control of your—how did you call it?—speech-but-not-speech._ "

"So all I need to do is...keep talking to you?"

" _That's right. So let us begin. We have much to discuss._ "

I didn't know how long I talked to the grapevine, but it seemed like hours at least. It told-but-didn't-tell me what was going on around headquarters—something about an O Games and Oscar switching bodies with Ms. O and some guy named Odd Todd, it all kinda blurs together now—and I told stories about the Academy and my escapades with O'Puck, and sometimes I even managed to tell-but-not-tell them, too. I wish I could remember better what exactly happened, but...ugh, it was so _blurry!_ We were talking and talking-but-not-talking, and maybe I napped sometimes, and I have a feeling I ate my way through a couple humongous grapes because I definitely remember trying to catch one of them as the grapevine dropped it down to me.

Like I said, it only felt like a handful of hours. But after endless time had passed, I discovered the truth.

What happened was that suddenly everything became clear again and the grapevine said-but-didn't-say, " _The end of your training is upon us. You are not aware of it yet, but you have learned much in our discourse over the past several_ _weeks_ _. I have nothing more I can teach you, and so now I believe an escort is coming to take you back to your role as an agent._ "

Escort? Weeks? Huh? My mind spun. But before I could ask there was a _zzzap!_ and suddenly an agent I didn't recognize holding a gadget I couldn't remember the name of appeared in the room. "Are you...Agent Ori?" he asked, cocking his head. "Where's your uniform?"

I looked down at myself. Gee, I forgot I'm still wearing my recruit shirt, I thought, a little embarrassed. "I haven't gotten it yet. I have my badge though!" I looked back up at him, holding up my empty hands sheepishly. "Just...not with me right now. Who are you, anyway?"

" _Your escort,_ " the grapevine supplied.

The other boy blinked, and it seemed to me like he remembered something. "Oh, yeah. I'm Agent Ohlm, spelled with a K. I'm from the future. I think I'm s'posed to take you to Ms. O's office. Or was I s'posed to use this gadget again first…?"

" _Wait, Ori, tell him he first has to—_ "

But before the grapevine could finish, there was this big flash and the area around this Ohlm guy looked like it _warped_ , and then it was like he winked out of site.

I turned back to the grapevine, completely bewildered. " _What was_ _that_ _?_ " I asked-but-didn't-ask, realizing I'd somehow gotten way better at doing that thing.

The grapevine made its chuckle sound. " _Ohlm is indeed an agent from the future. That gadget you saw was a time-travel machine called the Dayinator. He was_ _supposed_ _to escort you up to Ms. O's office for your uniform and your first assignment_ _before_ _he traveled back to his own time, but it looks like you'll just have to find your way back yourself. You can do that, can't you?_ "

"Of course!" I assured it out loud, remembering how I'd learned my way around headquarters all those weeks ago (even though it literally only felt like yesterday, but obviously I trusted the grapevine enough to believe it had really been a bunch of weeks). "Thanks for everything!"

But as I started running for the door, I skidded to a halt and turned back around. " _Will I ever see you again?_ " I asked-but-didn't-ask.

" _Of course. You can come back and visit me anytime you like. Only next time I won't hold you for more than an hour or two._ "

I giggled. " _See ya later, grapevine!_ " I called-but-didn't-call, and with that I ran out into HQ and found my way to Ms. O's office.

* * *

I think you know everything that happened next. After I finally put on my uniform, I started to explain why I'd been gone for so long, but Ms. O stopped me and said she wasn't supposed to find out why until the future (whatever that meant). Next she gave me a Centigurp thingy to take down to storage...which, after hearing-but-not-hearing a confusing jumble of words and feelings from Olive and Otto, I ended up opening...which Ms. O found out about after three other agents helped me find all one hundred Centigurps...which ended when I pushed a button in the lab that made a Timetastrophe happen. In fairness, I heard-but-didn't-hear Odelia say-but-not-say, " _I'm so glad he...press that button, it's not something that should happen on his first day. He...find out what it does,_ " and I got so excited about finally hearing-but-not-hearing another agent say-but-not-say something almost completely clearly, I didn't think about whether pushing the Timetastrophe button on my first day was actually something I was supposed to do or not. And boy, was that thing scary! But luckily Oscar showed up (without his shoes for some reason) and fought the Time Sheep, and so he saved the day!

Also, I later found out Ohlm made it back to his time—well, sort of. He got the timing off by a few days, and the location was way off because Agent Olympia found him inside her desk drawer while she was filming an OddTube video. All he could say was "I got lost again," which I guess he did. But hey, Oscar and Oona say he could've fared a lot worse. Orchid says she wishes he _had_ fared a lot worse.

Haha, oh Orchid. I guess I should tell you about Orchid now.

See, while I was going around looking for Centigurps, I was too...what's the word... _preoccupied_ to focus much on what everyone was saying-but-not-saying. My hearing-but-not-hearing skills were still super fuzzy around the edges, and since I didn't have time to try and puzzle through all that, I decided just to listen to what other agents were _actually_ saying.

That is, until I ran into Orchid.

If you ask her about everything that happened with the two of us on my first day, she'll probably tell you I'm just making it all up. But that's only because she's too embarrassed to admit my story is _true._ Why, you ask?

Because she's the first person whose speech-but-not-speech I could understand perfectly.

Don't get me wrong, I still got super excited when I later heard-but-didn't-hear Odelia, but Orchid isn't like other agents. I didn't know back then that she was the only one on the squad who could _sort of_ use the speech-but-not-speech. All I knew was that something made her... _different_.

Thing is, I know everything she said-but-didn't-say during the entire time she was with me that day.

Yeah, it's crazy! When she told me about her own worst first day and I got confused because it obviously just happened, I heard-but-didn't-hear every single explanation she wanted to give me—how events repeat themselves, how she thought I was stupid and single-minded (ouch, harsh), and even how she wanted to call me Sherman like she did with everyone else, or just not explain at all—and I also heard-but-didn't-hear her wonder why all that had "shut down". It was funny after that when she got scared after she accidentally invited me out to a movie, and kinda sweet when she started feeling sad for me and couldn't figure out why, and then funny again when she was relieved I picked her help option.

During that whole thing, I tried really hard not to show how surprised I was that I was hearing-but-not-hearing everything from her, but more on that in a bit. So once we started heading towards Odenbacker's workshop, I tried an experiment.

What I did was I turned around, held out my hand, and then this is the important part: I said-but-didn't-say, " _By the way, I'm Ori! I'm new here. What's your name?_ "

That's the thing! See, Orchid wasn't thinking straight, so when she shook my hand, she replied (but didn't reply) back the same way! " _Orchid. My name is Agent Orchid._ "

" _Cool! Nice to meet you, Orchid!_ " I said-but-didn't-say, and then went back to walking down the hallway with her, and _still_ she didn't notice!

After that I got preoccupied with Centigurps again and forgot to use more speech-but-not-speech, but when I went home that night after a super long day (pro tip: bedrooms that haven't been slept in for almost two months smell kinda weird), I had a bunch of time to think it all over. Not counting the grapevine, Orchid's the only person who's ever actually talked-but-not-talked _back_ to me...and she didn't even realize it! But then if she could do that, why did she say-but-not-say all that private stuff for me to hear-but-not-hear if I wasn't meant to answer any of it? Especially when she tried to test me down in Odenbacker's workshop by pretending to overreact about the Centigurps? Kinda dumb, if you ask me…

Okay, so when I said earlier I had a bunch of time to think stuff over? Well, the truth is I fell asleep before I could do too much more thinking. Whoops! Guess two months in a grapevine's trance of talking-but-not-talking will do that to you. Still, I think it was around that moment when I slowly started to figure out that hey, believe it or not, maybe not everyone else can understand the speech-but-not-speech, after all.

Maybe I wasn't actually behind at learning it, but right on time.

Which means Olive was right. I _am_ one of a kind.

 **A/N So if you remember from Ships Ahoy!, I referred to Orchid as being a _lambero_ in the chapter "The Caballero", a concept I referenced from the fanfic  A Frozen Flower by elysianoriel (formerly Perilheart). I liked this idea well enough to hint at it in _this_ fanfic, but to avoid plagiarism and/or continuity errors I'm not going to call her a _lambero_ anymore. Just so you guys are aware :)**


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